Thursday, 20 October 2011

I know, it's very naughty of me to write about a restaurant that's only been open for about five minutes. But tonight I had a really great meal at San Telmo, and in my excitement I really wanted to share my first impressions. They're still very much in soft open mode (eg limited menu), so go easy on them if you visit this week.

I've wittered on in the past on the blog about my love for Porteño, Sydney's sexy, stylish Argentinean grill. I'm thrilled that Melbourne too now has a similar establishment, a big glam restaurant that places Argentinean grilled meat centre stage.

San Telmo is brought to you by Jason McConnell (The Aviary and The Vic, cousin of Andrew and Matt), wife Renee and Dave and Mickey Parker. It's located in Meyers Place, next door to Lily Blacks.

The interior is all black and white tiles and wood and cowhide leather (the waiters even wear brown leather aprons). The grill is at the entrance of the restaurant, and the cocktail bar and small courtyard are located out the back.

Loved the mosaic wallpaper of photos of famous Argentines!

The sliding door entrance/exit to the toilets vestibule is operated by a green light button that you have to press, which is kinda gimmicky and silly (but fun).

The restaurant's centrepiece, the gigantic Parrilla (coal grill) with a lever that looks like it should be switching railroad tracks, required not only transportation from Argentina by boat but also a genuine Argentino engineer to assemble it.

Cowhide menu!

Among the dishes we tried were the chorizo ($16) and the zappallito (grilled zucchini, asparagus, toasted almond, $10). Oh, and 300g of fantastic entraña steak ($36), served with plenty of chimichurri and a mean-looking mother of a knife. If we hadn't been dining with a no pork girl, we definitely would have ordered the roast pork neck as well.

Loved the morcilla ($14) too. And you MUST leave room for one of these alfajores (Argentine cookies filled with dulce de leche, $5 each).

Thanks for the news! Looking forward to trying this place. Because we are such dessert-nuts, can you tell us how many desserts were on the menu, so we can round up either a small or large group of friends? :P

Oh wowsa's clearly I have to check this joint out! I've recently moved to Melbourne and while everything is still very exciting I have been blogging up a storm on my new site http://heyprettythings.blogspot.com. Hopefully you get to check it, thanks chica.

I was just reading about this place on the Agenda and was hunting around for an idea of the menu, looks like an amazing dining experience though. Thank you for sharing, hopefully will get to pop by soon... :)

I ate here last night, thanks for the heads-up Claire. They're now serving a full menu, and the place was 3/4 full, on a Tuesday night. There's a few wrinkles to be ironed out FOH, but the staff are really trying to impress, and they were genuinely interested in what we thought of the meal.

The food was excellent. We thought portion sizes for the meat dishes are relatively small, given the cost (many $40+), but we were surprised that the total bill was just over $300 for the 4 of us. We had 4 sides, 3 meat dishes, and 3 desserts, plus about 6 wines. And you're right, the alfajores, the cookies - *drool*

We'll be back, and they welcome drinks at the bar, if you're just after an after work knock-off. Although, with the great smells wafting through the place, I challenge you to go there without eating.

Melbourne Gastronome Map

This map shows all Melbourne venues reviewed on Melbourne Gastronome (with links to reviews). For a full screen version, clickety click here (any feedback you may have is warmly encouraged... I'm making this up as I go along)